Suppose for a moment that someone was allowed to enter heaven without holiness. What would he do? What possible enjoyment could he feel there? To which of all the saints would he join himself, and by whose side would he sit? Their pleasures are not his pleasures, their tastes are not his tastes, their character not his character. How could he possibly be happy, if he had not been holy on earth?

Now perhaps he loves the company of the light and careless, the worldly-minded and the covetous, the reveler and the pleasure-seeker, the ungodly and the profane. There will be none such in heaven.

Now perhaps he thinks the godly saints too strict and particular and serious, and he rather avoids them. He has no delight in their society. There will be no other company in heaven.

Now perhaps he thinks praying and Scripture reading, and hymn singing, dull and melancholy, a thing to be tolerated now and then, but not enjoyed. He reckons the Sabbath a burden and a weariness; he could not possibly spend more than a small part of it in worshipping God. But heaven is a never-ending Sabbath. The inhabitants thereof rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," and singing the praise of the Lamb. How could an unholy man find pleasure in occupation such as this?

Think you that such would delight to meet David and Paul and John, after a life spent in doing the very things they spoke against? Would he take sweet counsel with them and find that he and they had much in common? Think you, above all, that he would rejoice to meet Jesus, the crucified One, face to face, after cleaving to the sins for which He died, after loving His enemies and despising His friends? Would he stand before Him with confidence and join in the cry, "This is our God... we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation" (Isaiah 25:9)? Think you not rather that the tongue of an unholy man would cleave to the roof of his mouth with shame, and his only desire would be to be cast out? He would feel a stranger in a land he knew not, a black sheep amid Christ's holy flock. The voice of cherubim and seraphim, the song of angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, would be a language he could not understand.

It does seem clear that heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man. It cannot be otherwise. People may say they "hope to go toheaven," but they do not consider what they say... We must be heavenly-minded, and have heavenly tastes, in the life that now is, or else we shall never find ourselves in heaven, in the life to come.

Let me now say a few words by way of application: are you holy? Do you know anything of the holiness of which I have been speaking?

I do not ask whether you attend your church regularly, whether you have been baptized, and receive the Lord's Supper, whether you have the name of Christian. I ask something more than all this: are you holy, or are you not?

I do not ask whether you approve of holiness in others, whether you like to read the lives of holy people and to talk of holy things, and to have on your table holy books, whether you mean to be holy, and hope you will be holy some day. I ask you: are you yourself holy this very day, or are you not?

And why do I ask so straightly, and press the question so strongly? I do it because the Scripture says, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. 12:14) It is written, it is not my fancy; it is the Bible, not my private opinion; it is the word of God, not of man.

Alas, what searching, sifting words are these! I look at the world and see the greater part of it lying in wickedness. I look at professing Christians and see the vast majority having nothing of Christianity but the name. I turn to the Bible and I hear the Spirit saying, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord."